This guide explains how to import custom ADMX/ADML into Intune so you can manage Windows apps that still rely on classic Group Policy templates. Most of the policies you’ll ever need are already exposed in Intune’s Settings Catalog — but every IT environment has at least one app whose admins still ship a custom ADMX/ADML template from the on-prem Group Policy days. Adobe Reader, FortiClient, custom in-house tools, and a long tail of vendor utilities all use this format, and Intune supports it natively as long as you know the slightly hidden import workflow.
This post walks through importing a custom ADMX/ADML pair into Microsoft Intune end-to-end — where to grab the template files, how to upload them, how to assign the resulting profile, and what to expect on the client. Plus the debugging steps for the most common import failures.
With the Intune service release 2208 there is a really nice feature that lets you import custom ADMX/ADML into Intune very easily. This helps you create configurations for e.g. third-party products. I will explain how this works based on Firefox. If you are new to device management, you may also want to read my other Intune guides first.
Custom ADMX and ADML imports are helpful when a required Windows policy is not yet available as a native Intune setting. Treat every import like configuration source code: keep the original vendor files, document the version, and test the policy in a separate device group first. When you import custom ADMX/ADML into Intune, you essentially extend the catalog with vendor-defined settings that Intune can then deliver through the MDM channel.
